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[0:00] Welcome to the Knife Junkie podcast, the place for blade lovers to learn about knives and hear from the makers, manufacturers, and reviewers that make the knife world go round.
I'm Bob DeMarco, and coming up, a cold steel I've been longing for for a long time has finally made its way into my collection.
Off-grid has another exciting V2, and we take a look at serrated blades.
["The Knife Junkie Podcast Theme"] Welcome to the Knife Junkie podcast, your weekly dose of knife news and information about knives and knife collecting. Here's your host, Bob the Knife Junkie DeMarco.
Welcome back to the show. My favorite comment from this past week was from the Lynn Thompson interview, an interview that got the most views the quickest than any other. This gentleman, this is Oxman1800, says, Lynn is the man. My dad and I are both huge fans and got to meet him at a restaurant at Blade Show one year. I walked up to shake his hand and he invited us to sit and chat.
Then he gifts my dad and I two brand new LT Vaccaro Voyagers.

[1:12] I think he meant XL Voyagers there. When he said he loves his customers, he's being 100% genuine.
My dad has since passed and I will never sell that Voyager or forget that memory, so thank you, Mr. Thompson.
And this was a really nice comment for a lot of reasons, but it seems to strike a chord with people because Cold Steel has been around for a long time and people have memories wrapped up in the brand.
I myself have memories wrapped up in the brand, you know, like One Might with a Buck or something a little bit older.
So, and I also think that people were excited to see Lynn Thompson, for lack of a better term, let his hair down.
You know, it was a little bit more than an hour of conversation.
And we usually see him in little bits and pieces, and he's oftentimes selling a knife or talking about why a knife is awesome as opposed to talking about himself.
So I think I really love the opportunity and I think people like the show.
So thank you one and all, Oxman1800, thanks for the comment and the sentiment there.
And thank you one and all for watching and commenting.
All right, all that being said, I think it's time to get to a pocket check.
So I had this idea for a show that I'll do sometime.

[2:39] In the future called Knives by Marines, because I have a lot of them, I came to realize, but I think I'll wait until, I can't remember when the Marines, Marine Corps birthday is, and I hope a bunch of you are yelling at your speakers or at the screen, telling me when.
I'll find out, and I'll do a show around that time about 95 Marines, but this one, this is the Les George BSEP, of BSEP and, Well, he's a Marine, and Les George did what do you call it?
EOD, so Explosive Ordnance Disposal.
Hurt Locker, going up to bombs and diffusing them, disposing of them, and his love of knives began before that.

[3:25] But he really started making knives for the job of digging up mines and stuff like that.
Anyway, this is his VSEP based on his Rock Eye custom model, the visa was one of the first sort of recognized mid tech knives out there mid tech, meaning the blade and the so that titanium blanks, and the blade blanks and such were water jetted out elsewhere. And then he, you, know, finished it, put it together and sharpened it and everything, which this day and age, we just call a custom knife. But at the time, that was mid tech, meaning, you know, some of it was taken care of out of house by machines.
And I have always loved this design. I, when it came out and people were calling it the sebenza killer, I was like, yeah, I could see that.
It looks so useful and so beautiful, utilitarian and sort of military.
I just, I think this design is just perfect. So I got this one, this was a grail knife for me.
I got it from someone in Singapore and I thought it got lost in the mail, it took so long to get here.

[4:35] But prior to that, I had gotten the RockEye Automatic by Protek, that was my entry into the V-Sep model because the V-Sep was hard to get when I fell in love with it, and way beyond my reach in terms of cost.
And I was able to get into the design, if you will, get behind the wheel of that design with the first run of Protek RockEyes.
Which if you like the VSEP, go for it. if you can't get the VSEP itself.

[5:05] Get the Rockeye, it's a great representation. All right, next up on me, I had, in a strange and random turn, the Finch 1929.
I say strange and random because, you know, I was trying to, I was sort of doing that thing where you sort of labor over what slip joint you're going to carry, what fifth pocket knife you're going to carry.
And it occurred to me, I could go for a Finch.
They have such, this one has all of the qualities I was looking for in a slip joint today, which is just sort of that traditional layout with the bolster and the bone and the shield and all that.
And I decided I didn't have to do a GEC or a case or a jack wolf, I could do this.
And because those were the features I needed or wanted in that today, something small, doesn't matter if it locks.
I love these bolster locks. So Finch knives has sort of two unofficial lines.
I think they're unofficial. On one side you have knives that are like this, bolster locks, steel or in some cases titanium bolster locks with different covers here.
In this case this is a red bone, they call this nightcrawler bone.
In other cases they use wood or carbon fiber or G10, micarta.

[6:25] And it's with that bolster and the flipper. And then there are other, like a whole other half of their lineup, you know what I'm saying, the other half of their lineup is just a slab of G10 or a slab of micarta and a liner lock.
So two great ways to get out of Finch in this awesome action.
And I have about half and half. Half of them are this style and half of them are the other style.
These are lighter, or heavier, obviously, a little more metal, but they're all just so appealing.
All right, so Finch, 1929 on me.
Also with me today was my, where did I put it?

[7:09] Hang on a sec, how embarrassing. Oh, here it is. It's just so thin, it got lost in this pile of knives over here. My Kramer, Eric Kramer, custom Rudy.
There are two Kramers out there making custom knives, Robert Kramer, who makes exquisite kitchen knives, And Eric Kramer, who makes exquisite tactical knives.
It's blade and some, he's getting back into making folders.
Those are quite coveted, because he didn't make many of them, but they're really cool.
Kirk Horning has one. Kramer custom voodoo here. I love that upswept blade shape, but even with that sweep, The blade, the point is still center line.

[7:52] The edge starts well below the knuckles, and so that point, you still get all of that sweep and the slashing capabilities there, but you still have the point right in the center, so you know where it is at any blade orientation.
I had him sharpen the top swedge, that's not a usual thing. Whenever possible, I have a custom maker, if I'm getting a custom knife, sharpen the top swedge.
This one is so thin. It's this is a great EDC he makes other knives that are pretty tactical all of them, but you could get like a drop point, Grinch from him and it looks maybe a little less a little, less tactical than this, but you know, but they're very great for daily carry. That's what I'm saying because they're so slender, and so light and the ergonomics of this handle make the thinness of the handle barely noticeable. It's a really really comfortable. I did an interview with Eric Kramer. And he's he's an interesting dude. He works in the Coast Guard, protecting our coasts.

[9:05] He started making custom knives for all of his buddies in the military, and they were all very large, gnarly sort of, the kind of knives you might see in a Schwarzenegger movie.
And his friends were like, don't get me wrong, this is a super cool knife, but with all the other crap I'm carrying on my LBE and such, I need something lighter.
Plus, if I need to pull it out to actually fight someone, it's too big and cumbersome.
And he started making them smaller and smaller and lighter and lighter, and he zeroed in on some really amazing designs. So check out Eric Kramer.
You can see him on Instagram. And then lastly for emotional support today, and fidget factor, worry stone factor, I had the Wingard Wearables quill on the wrapped in jute by me.
It really actually that little extra bit of girth there really locks it in the hand when you have it in various grips. I love this one.
It's the hammer fist grip. so you get the benefit of that spike on your hammer fist, but also if you're just gonna punch straight, and I've hit hard stuff with this now, and with this, it doesn't turn. Without it, it would crush me, kill my knuckles.
But now I can hit something hard and hit it with this, the crest of this curve here.

[10:23] And really change someone's attitude if I make contact.
So I love carrying it like this, or holding it like this in my imaginary fights.
Or you could hold it like this and have a punch dagger, you could hold it like this for what Zach calls a haymaker.
I don't recommend punching like this. You're likely to hurt your shoulder or elbow, but in this sort of lighter motion, you could make that work for sure.
This is just a great super finger. That's what he calls spikes, and I love that expression.
It's a super finger because you can do everything you can do with your finger, well, not everything, but the tough tasks you do with your fingers, scraping, poking, reaching, scratching.
You know, disemboweling. You can do that all with this little hook piece of steel.
So love it, love it.
It's a beautiful little sort of work of art in the pocket.
So that's what I had on me today. The V-Sep by Les George Knives, which by the way, I didn't mention, has an absolutely buttery washer action.
I love that, I love that. And we don't see as much of that these days because of the bearings.
I had a Eric Kramer custom voodoo. I had the 1929 by Finch, and of course, the Wingard Wearables Quill.
I wanna talk about August and the Gentleman Junkie Knife Giveaway.
We've had a couple of really cool new V2s come in from Off-Grid Knives, and by V2, I mean he's.

[11:52] Kerry of Off-Grid Knives is always updating his designs and listening to the crowd and sort of perfecting them.
And he sent recently, I showed off, the V2 Grizzly. Grizzly. This is the knife I'm always talking about that I bring on vacation. Here's the V1. This is the one I always bring on vacation. It's a great outdoor slash chef's knife, mostly a cooking knife. Nice broad blade, high flat grind, very thin behind the edge. Aus8 blade steel. Substantial. Well, he redesigned it, thinned out the handle, contoured it, took away the ridges, the handle is way more comfortable now, and I suspect there's a bit more lightening under milling in the tang. It feels lighter, it's more balanced right here up at the first finger, kind of like a fighting knife. But then you also have that big, broad blade.
It is now 14C28, and definitely an improvement over Aus8A, or just the Aus8 from before.

[13:01] And then this one, with that high flat grind, is just a little bit even slicier and thinner, like a little bit more of a chef's knife now than an outdoors knife.
Not that this is too much of an outdoors knife, but he does go out of the way to stress that you don't want to do heavy, like, this is not a bushcraft knife.
So even though it's like a camp cook knife, not a bushcraft knife.
Extended that jimping by about an inch on the spine. And this is a really, really great fixed blade knife.
And I know that folder collectors out there outpace fixed blade collectors.
But if you're a folder collector, I highly recommend that you get one, two, three fixed blades in your collection. One of them, of course, would be a big sort of combat blade.
One of them would be a camp blade, like a survival blade, something like that.
Then something, and then something EDCable. So this could fall in one of those categories.

[14:06] So this is what you stand to gain if you are a Gentleman Junkie.
That is the high tier of support on Patreon.
Every month we do a tribute to them and give away a knife, and that's what it is, this is what it is this month.
So do check it out, you can do so by going to Patreon, that's theknifejunkie.com slash Patreon.
You can check out the three levels of support there, or you can scan the QR code about to pop up on screen. Boom, see that?
And that'll take you right there.
One thing that you do get as a patron that I think is the most valuable is the interview extras.
Every time we do an interview, we do about 10 to, depends on who, 20 minutes or so extra.

[14:53] And I get to ask questions that I've forgotten or that there just wasn't time for or maybe that isn't for broader consumption.
Consumption. So hot takes, if you will. So a little bit of interview extras there when you become a Patreon member. All right, still to come on the Knife Junkie podcast, we're going to take a look at some exciting new knives in Knife Life News and some exciting news in Knife Life News. And then we're going to get to the state of the collection and, then serrated blades.
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[16:01] And SOG, and some of the companies that have gone through radical rebranding over the past five years or so.
Gerber's one of them.
They have a new release, it's ultralight, it's called the Assert.

[16:12] That's a pretty good name for a knife, for an EDC knife. I gotta say, as much as I, as much as Gerber tends to stick in my craw with their knives, this one to me looks really, really nice.
The Assert is an ultralight knife at 1.87 ounces. You can see it's got a waffle pattern lightening it on the outside.
And I can only assume something lightening it out on the inside. That's GFN.
That's the new deep carry pocket clip from Gerber that I like very much.
Though it's not inset, it ramps very gradually around the screws and it's an elegant solution to the screw issue.
This one has their pivot lock, which is deceptive because there are actual pivot locks out there, but this is their version of the Axis lock, they're just calling it the pivot lock, though it's not on the pivot, it's north of the pivot.

[17:10] So eee, with the naming there. But it looks pretty nice.
It's S30V, which is still a Super Steel, it's just an aging Super Steel, kind of like yours truly. 2.9 inch blade and currently available. A cool thing there is that you can remove the thumb stud or slide it up or down that slot and tighten it for your thumb. Not a necessary feature, but you know, kind of cool. And I like the blue axe.

[17:44] So that is the Gerber Assert. I look forward to hearing from others as to whether they like it.
All right, next up from Civivi. Three exciting new knives from Civivi.
They just keep doing cool stuff.
That is par for their course. They have the new Elementum Warnie.
Elementum, the most iterated Civivi for sure, and one of the most iterated knives out there.
Bar the Boker Burnley Quaken, Quaken, which, man, soon that will come in lightsaber form, no doubt. This Warnie is beautiful, a very nice curve down and angle down to that tip. You could still use that for thrusting, or I shouldn't call it that, you know, penetration in the knife like this. I'm thinking clamshell packages, those are always hard to deal with. Beautiful shape here, that nice straight edge. It is a Civivi, it will be very thinly ground, no doubt.
It is in nitro V and a liner lock, unlike some of their recent button locks, that is.

[18:48] Okay, next up, down below the balder, is what I'm calling it, a really interesting gladius-esque, dagger-esque tanto here.
Americanized tanto with the faceted tip and a bunch of swedging and grinding up front and a line that goes straight down the middle that I'm not so sure, I don't know, a design thing that, it's where all the grind lines come together, it might be too many notes, but a really great looking 4 inch blade nonetheless, 14C28N, it's gonna have G10 on my card liner lock, I like the little hole in the flipper tab, I like the whole area around the pivot the way that looks too.

[19:34] So good one and you know, I'm always excited for the more tactical more four-inch Civivis. They have some big ones that I like, All right, and then going down to the bottom, I'm, not sure how you pronounce this the this is basically a liner lock version of the Cetos, and this one kind of looks like it's, Like it would be pronounced the same way because I don't I don't know i'm not sure about my latin Ketus maybe or cetus cetus a e c a e t u s If my dad's listening, he's telling me what it is.
It's over the screen there.
I love the bayonet ground blade. I'm a big fan of that style blade.
It's sort of a fighter blade, a bayonet ground with a long pole there that you can use to finger flick.

[20:21] I believe, if it's anything like the Cetos. And this one is three and a half inches, 14C28, and different from the Cetos in that it is a liner lock.
The other was a steel frame lock.
3.19 ounces, which I'm not sure what the Citos was, but no doubt this is gonna be lighter.
I'm betting they don't have a liner on the off side on this one.

[20:45] So, that is, these are all in the offing mid-August. So, I mean, basically, next week these will be out and I'm excited to see those coming. Next up, we all know about the...
Blue Ridge Knives purchase of the Ontario Knife Company up in New York put 56 people out of out of work, but hopefully, hopefully that is temporary.
There is a they did release a little news release saying something like this. I'll say this. I'll read this straight from Blue Ridge Knives.
Today, August 1st, 2023, Blue Ridge Knives, Inc. completed their asset purchase of Ontario Knife Company from their parent company Servotronics, Inc. Servotronics, Inc. reached out to Blue Ridge Knives earlier this year to gauge interest in purchasing Ontario Knife Company.
The two companies entered into an agreement in July with Blue Ridge Knives agreeing to purchase all assets. Blue Ridge Knives, Inc. is a wholesale distributor and will continue to operate as such. Blue Ridge Knives is working with OKC's previous management to sell them the manufacturing equipment so they may continue producing Ontario knives in Franklinville.

[22:03] New York." That's the end of the statement, so let's hope that that is what happens. They say that they are working to sell manufacturing equipment to continue producing. So let's I hope that happens, it seems like at least a good sign that if it had to be sold, it was being sold to a knife distributor and they would have some interest in continuing that legacy brand.

[22:29] And it's good news to hear that they want to continue it in New York, which means they would be using all the same machines with the same people, hopefully, presumably, and retain that expertise, instead of starting over somewhere else, especially China.
All right, lastly, this is a nice one. This is a good story, heartwarming story.
And that is that Knife Rights has beaten Philadelphia, has won over Philadelphia, who had the most restrictive knife laws of any city in the nation, any city, even beat New York.
This was saying that you could not even, I mean, Philadelphia was saying you could not be anywhere in the city with a knife, they considered any knife a weapon. So I'm just going to read directly from this.

[23:20] In 2014, Knife Rights published a list of the 10 worst anti-knife cities in America. At that time, 2014, New York City was number one. But we fixed New York City's gravity knife arrest problem in 2019, moving Philadelphia up to the number one worst anti-knife city spot. Now, Knife Rights has accepted Philadelphia's offer to judgment in Knife Rights, Inc. v. Outlaw, our federal Second Amendment lawsuit that sought to declare unconstitutional and enjoin Philadelphia's laws that ban the possession and carry of any bladed arms in paren, knives, in public.
The city also agreed to pay $10,000 to cover Knife Rights legal expenses. How nice is that?
Not only are they caving and not only are they changing their absolutely ridiculous laws but they're also paying knife rights for their time and their trouble and their legal fees and that just warms the cockles of my heart.
I lived in Philadelphia for five years and it has a very, you know, I think of it fondly even though it was in the early 90s it was somewhat rough but I enjoyed living there.
But there's always been some things about that city that...

[24:36] Make it hard to live there. And one of those knife rights were one of them, those knife laws.
Knife rights took care of it. Anyway, Philly, Philly, Philly, Philly. Things have gotten better in Philly. All right, coming up on the Knife Junkie podcast, we're going to take a look at a new off-grid knife and a cold steel that I've been yearning for for ages and finally got.
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So, a sent to me by Off Grid Knives is the new version of their Ridgeback.
The Ridgeback, the original Ridgeback, is a Kephart blade, Kephart shaped blade, with a Scandi grind.

[25:45] I did a couple of videos with this knife, chopping down saplings and doing stuff in the woods, bumbling around.
It is extremely sharp, 14C28N, which is a blade steel that was basically The first blade steel, well I shouldn't say first blade steel, a very common blade steel in Mora's and other Scandi-ground Scandinavian knives.

[26:09] And so apropos for this Ridgeback, well they have come out with a new one, a V2, in an aim to improve.
They have turned this into a fully flat ground blade.

[26:25] And it is slicey as all get out. I gotta say, when I first got these, well, two of them came, and I've been noodling around with the black one, with the blackout version of this.
But when it arrived, I was a little, I gotta say, I was like, oh, I kinda feel like this should still be a Scandi ground blade, but I really like the full flat ground version.

[26:49] Now, I'm not a huge carver, I'm not a huge bushcrafter. I don't know if I were, if I would really be missing the Scandi grind, but I gotta say, holding them in my hand, I am finger heavy.
It is so much heavier, the Scandi ground blade, than the full flat ground.
And that's obviously because there's a lot less steel on it.
But if it's just a camp knife that you're gonna have on your hip while you're camping, and while you're going outdoors and doing all sorts of, you know, whatever you use your knives for outdoors, Carving, see like for this one it seems more, the full flat ground just seems more universally useful.
Not that you couldn't do food prep with a Scandi ground blade, but obviously this would be much better.
And if you're doing the lighter tasks and such, this might be the way to go.
I'm wondering, I have not taken and pounded this through, I haven't done any like kindling making or batoning, I haven't done anything with these really, outside anyway.
So, I'm looking forward to seeing how they perform differently than this.
I mean, this is still a pretty thin blade, but it's a much more obtuse angle behind that edge.
But that is, that bevel is the edge. So, I don't know, I don't know.
Scandi versus full slack ground, what do you think?

[28:11] I'm saying that if I'm carrying the Ridgeback out into the wilderness, I feel like I would go this.

[28:20] This one, the full flat ground. Now the one thing is, they changed the steel on this to D2. Now why?
Is it because it's less expensive or something like that? Do you think that was a business decision?
Or is it because it's a tool steel and more useful on a full flat ground blade, for this kind of stuff? I don't know.
I know that Kerry does great with, Off Grid Knives does great with D2, and he's been very happy with how his Taiwanese manufacturers are doing it.
So maybe that's it, maybe. Except that the new Grizzly V2 is in 14C28N.
So I'm just curious about the steel choice.

[29:05] But, so here it is. This is the Ridgeback V2, and to my, what am I gonna say, dilettante eyes as an outdoorsman, I'd say that this is an improvement.
This as a Kephart style blade to me this feels like an improvement. If you're out there and you're yelling at your screen and you're disagreeing, put it in the comment below politely and let me know which grind you think is better for this Kephart shaped blade and for the outdoor purpose. I'm going with the full flat ground. Alright, off-grid knives, oh by the way let way, let me show you, they also improved the sheath. Here's the old sheath, the pancake, with a pretty big footprint. And then here it is, the new taco style sheath, which I much prefer. Though it does have fewer lashing options, this is not one that I need many lashing options on, I don't think this will do just fine. Alright. And then, okay, next.

[30:11] Up. One of the knives that was brought back when GSM bought Cold Steel. Yes, the venerable Talwara XL. I love this knife. I can't believe it took me nearly 20 years to get one of these in hand. I think that's how long these things have been around. Nearly. Notice I said nearly.
That's a trick we use when we don't know what we're talking about. But this knife, I remember first, well of course lusting after in all the videos and such, but I went to visit my brother. I was in Ohio and I stayed in their guest bedroom and this was sitting on the bedside stand. Like myself, he's got a knife in every room and this was just out and he had the Aus8 version.

[30:56] That's right, Vic. I got S35VN right here, brother. But anyway, he had the much inferior Aus8 version, but it still had the same ergonomics.
I picked it up, I held it in hand, and I was like, oh my God, I can't believe.
This is just another great, versatile, large handle from Cold Steel.
Like the Voyagers and the Espadas and all the others, this has multiple handholds and they're all excellent.
You can do right up here.
And really, if you need to be, I guess, you can come right up here.

[31:30] There are a lot of sort of incidental finger choils on cold steels because they're very generous with the tang, so you can close them all one-handed.
See what I mean there?
So that can also function as a place where you can put your finger if you need to choke up for some reason.
But anyway, nice wide guard area for thrusting. So you can be way up front here and not come up onto the blade, even if you hit something hard because you got finger groove, finger groove, finger groove, and somehow they all just fit. I would imagine if I had giant meat meat hooks they would still fit but what I love is coming back here and, then coming back here. This feels great and it gives you so much reach. Look at that. Now you'll notice I got this serrated and we're gonna be talking talking serrations today. But I got this one serrated because of that upward sweep. I figure The serrations, uh...

[32:32] The upward sweep thing is, we know that it accelerates slashes, but we also know that a totally flat blade also accelerates slashes because of that tip.
So in an abundance of caution, I got serrations just in case I'm slashing at something, and, that upsweep of the blade starts to glance away.
At least I have five little blades and a big scoop and then five little blades and a big scoop to take care of business as the blade is disengaging.
You see what I mean?
Five little blades and a big scoop.
The serration pattern here is amazing.

[33:14] But yeah, so this knife, the Talwar XL really, really is an excellent XL knife.
I'm really excited I finally have it in the collection because it really was a missing link.
And I had the four inch in Aus8, and I foolishly sold that, but they are re-releasing that one too.
So I look forward to checking that one out. All right, now that we've gotten through that, I'm gonna back up and we're gonna talk about serrations.
And by backup, I mean, we're not gonna talk about cold steel serrations till the end, because to me, they are just the bomb.
One might say the bomb diggity. And if in the future my daughters watch this, they will cringe right there.
All right, so let's talk about Emerson first. Let's talk about different serration patterns.
Now, Emerson blades, Emerson knives has, here I'm gonna show you on the two that I have, that the Emerson CQC-13 and the SOCKFK-A, or S-O-C-F-K-A, I hate that name.
But Emerson uses a variation on the classic serration pattern.

[34:35] What is that? This classic serration pattern is a large scoop, which we can see right there in the center, and then flanked on either side by three peaks.
And those three peaks are little blades and they're chiseled ground.
So you have basically a hawkbill blade in the big scoop, sitting next to three outward-pointing daggers.
In Emerson's case, the center of those three outward-pointing daggers is recessed.
So they are not all on the same level. So you have three levels of cutting.
You have the very highest, the peak of the dagger, if you will, you have the center dagger, which is a little bit lower, and then you have the hawkbill, which comes in the middle.
So really, really accelerating your cutting.

[35:24] You know, Saracens fell out of favor pretty quickly due to the sharpening, I think.
And also just due to the fact that it's disruptive to the design.

[35:36] If you're getting a knife and some of it has to do with how it looks, it's disrupting the design.
So that's from my perspective.
But from a real hardcore user's perspective, especially someone who's outdoors, who's doing a lot of carving, who's doing stuff with wood, you don't want serrations there.
Those serrations are there, in this case, in a 50-50 serration case or a partially serrated blade case, they are there to extend the life of the blade in the field because it takes a lot longer to dull serrations, a lot more surface area, a lot more sharp surface area there.
And then just the contouring with the teeth will keep this thing cutting longer than that edge will.
So they are kind of elastic. They're like a Hail Mary there on your blade for cutting when everything else is dulled out.

[36:27] But also, it's there to help accelerate that cut, to start that cut.
Something fibrous like jute or some sort of rope, you could have a very, very sharp edge, slipping off of that. Imagine a highly polished V-ground edge going up against jute rope.
It's without a bit of bite to it, it's not gonna sink in. It's gonna skate across that surface.
So, serrations are there to start cuts.
And then also, to get you through certain, like I said, fibrous materials, but also, this is kind of a tactical blade. We're looking at Emerson's here.

[37:06] What might the serrations be for on a tactical blade? Well, besides the rope and the webbing and all the other stuff you might have to cut, you also might have to cut through leather, like a leather jacket, or nylon, like a heavy nylon.

[37:23] Jacket in the winter or something like that, and those serrations, again, will start that cut.
And if you notice, on your serrated blades, they are always chisel ground, because you're coming at it from a less of an angle. If you had that V ground, they would be, you know, they would not be very substantial and would probably give way. So when you look at, At serrations, they're always gonna be chisel ground.
And the cool thing is, is on Emersons, the whole blade is always chisel ground.
The edge, that is. Sometimes the blade, most of my Emersons are V-ground, and then chisel ground on the edge.
So a natural setup here for serrations. By the way, this knife here is so cool.
This Saakvuk-A really is so ergonomic. is a little bit smaller than most of the full-size Emersons and doesn't get much talk.
I don't think they're currently making them, so maybe that's why.
And then, of course, the CQC-13.
This is a classic, my favorite folding bowie out there, and this is wearing Tom Engelson's Vantage Edgepoint BladeWorks scales.

[38:44] He does awesome work, check him out on Instagram. specializing in Emersons but does other great stuff too.
So serrations on these two, again, the Emerson, the big scoop, which is like a hawkbill blade, and then the three points, which are like downward facing daggers.
In Emerson's case, the center dagger is recessed, so you get three different levels of cutting.
Now next up, we're gonna go to sort of the classic. These, all of these next blades, have the sort of classic serrations, and that is the scoop, the three peaks, and those three peaks are all on the same level.
Let's start with the SOG Mini Seal, the SOG Seal Pup. This is a great fixed blade knife.
I'm not so sure they're making this anymore. And if they aren't, it's only recently that they stopped.
This was a big, big box store purchase.
And I got the sheath on the, I bought the sheath afterwards.
But this knife is awesome. This thing rides in my backpack.
This is my carry fixed blade knife, always.
It's always in my backpack.

[39:54] So let's take a look at these serrations. Again, these are serrations on a partially serrated blade.
These will start the cut.
Again, if this is for a SEAL or some sort of military person, they're probably cutting rope, cutting webbing, cutting all sorts of paracord and stuff.
And say your Aus-8 blade is getting dull out there in the field, you will always have these to fall back to.
And they will usually work. I mean, it takes a long time to dulcerate.
Again, here you'll see that they are.

[40:30] That those serrations are chisel ground, and then as you turn it you can see that a sog has taken just this area to chisel grind and then it's gone to a traditional, v-edge on the rest of the blade. So you have those three peaks between the scoops and they are at the same height, and so in between them you have two scoops. It's those curved scoops and the peaks that are what make these things so nasty and effective.
Scoops and peaks, baby. Scoops and peaks.
All right, that's the SOG Seal Pup.
This one I have set up for lanyard carry just in case, since this is likely to be on me if I'm ever stuck in the car and have to get home.
I do have a get home bag in the car. So this, I have that lanyard on just for, I don't know, safety purposes.
It in my hand if it's my one fixed blade I definitely don't want to lose it and I think it's always good just to have that option of course I have it set up so you can take it off and and you don't need it but yep I have it set up for in the waistband carry now this sheath from SOG has this goofy little slot here so you, can feed in paracord theoretically and cut it without pulling this out but in.

[41:50] My experience I don't know I keep this knife pretty sharp but I think it would would have to be a lot sharper to make that little slot thing work.
But a great knife and proof that SOG's got it.

[42:05] SOG's got it, they just have to keep accessing it. And I know they've done some pretty cool stuff with their fixed blades recently.
Hiring someone great to boost up their fixed blades over there, I'm not sure.
Not sure if I can talk about it. Not sure if I can talk about it.
Anyway, all right, good deal. intact right here intact northman, A, amazing knife, this thing is so cool. It comes in this size, this is the original size, and then an XL, and chances are, you'll need the XL, or the large, I'm not sure if it's an XL or a large.
But this barely fits in my medium-sized hands. But this is intended to be, this is designed by, a former SEAL, Navy SEAL, and Bill Rapier is his name.

[42:55] Which is just a great name for A, an elite soldier, and be someone who designs knives, feel right here.
A little on the nose, but I love it. So this is intended to be a pocket fixed blade, and it is set up to be such.
I have tried it in the waistband, but with the length of this discreet carry clip, coming above the sheath, and my pants would be right about here, you're most likely cutting into the waistband as you draw this out, so I don't mess with that.
I do carry this in the front pocket, and it carries perfectly there.
This sheath is really unique.
You can see the discreet carry clip here that's mounted on there. It's not moving.
And then here you have a ferro rod built in. So this guy's a SEAL.
He's not just thinking about this as a weapon. He's thinking about this as a pocket knife that you have on you all the time.
And then, heaven forbid, you're in a situation you need to strike flint and make fire because you're in a survival situation. Well, you have a pocket knife that can handle it.
On the backside, you have this Velcro pouch where you can keep, you know, like a $100 bill or as suggested a, a, a, a.

[44:09] A handcuff key, which is kind of funny. I don't carry a handcuff key. Thank God I don't find myself in handcuffs. But who knows, knock on wood. But if I were to find myself in handcuffs and needed a key, how the hell are you going to fish this thing out of your pocket and get the key out of there? But I don't know, maybe that's something other guys know how to do. This is a really nice G10 handle here. I'm going to extract the blade now and show these serrations. But this handle is really nice G10 with that milling coming in from either side. M390 blade steel, this is serial numbered, 1169 baby. Nice distal tapered blade and it reminds me of a Ski & Do, the knife that does Scotsman wearing their socks. Again, we have the triple peak with the large scoop in the middle, that's three daggers and one hawkbill. Okay, so here it's six daggers and three hawkbills, making up that run of serrations on the Northman.

[45:13] So let me show you the size of this. Here it is in my hand in a hammer fist.
Or I should just, yeah, a hammer grip here. And you can see my finger is just barely not coming up onto the blade.
Now, this is not my preferred grip for this anyway, but I feel like with that stout, an incredibly acute point, like it's coming to a pyramid there basically.
That really stout and acute point, very, very, very sharp.
I have no doubt that I could thrust this and not, depending on what I hit, in any case, I think it would be very hard for me to run up onto that with those ergonomics.
But I know in this grip, in the reverse grip, with that awesome bird's beak there that thumb plate that you just put your thumb on.
This is an awesome, downward thrusting, you know, defensive style blade here.

[46:12] So those serrations, when my father bought this for me, this is an expensive knife, and my dad bought it for me.
Thank you, dad, he's a very generous guy, and he is also an impressionable guy.
Dad, if you're listening, just listen up.
All I mean by that is he loves gear. He's always loved things.
Growing up, he'd get into little things and collect them for a little while and then move on, but never like knives with me or things that my brother collects.
He's getting into it, though, and he's been reading the Jack Carr books.
And Jack Carr and James Reese likes to list out the gear in great detail, and he loved the description of this knife, so he decided to buy me and my brother one, which is so cool.
And they come with a trainer and another sheath, and he asked, do you want serrations?
I remember I was out with my family. and I was like, do you want serrations or not?
And I was like, going back and forth. And then finally I was like, it's a small blade.
It should have as much cutting capability as possible. So I went with the serrations, and I'm happy I did.
It looks cool and very clean without the serrations in this design.
But with the serrations, it just adds confidence into this recipe.

[47:34] I think I'm gonna do a wardrobe change after this show, I think I'm gonna carry the Northman on me today. I love this knife.
All right, putting it down aside now, let's talk about the most famous, and those are the Spidey Edge here.
Now, I think they may have started it all with this, with their Spidey Edge pattern here.
So there you see the classic three-peak with the large sharpened scoop in the center, or three daggers and a hawkbill.
Three daggers and a hawk they'll walk into a bar, you know, you know how that one ends.
It ends with this awesome Spyderco Delica wharncliffe, a gift.
Let me wipe that off there. Sorry about that, hang on. Sorry, it is a bit of a fingerprint magnet because it's that nice Spyderco satin.
This is the perfect shape and size for a small defensive EDC knife.
You've got that wonderful straight edge wharncliffe, and then you're adding that you're just accelerating that straight edge cutting power with those serrations.
It's just a really effective combination.

[48:49] And then something that I really like about this knife in particular, but you add those serrations.
If you needed to use this innocent little tool, it's a Delica, right?
If you need, and then this has the Smoky Mountain Knife Works titanium scales and a MXG gear clip, aftermarket clip, but this is just a sort of an innocent little tool, but if you needed to use it in a fight, it fits perfectly in the hand as a serrated pick-all style knife.
And those serrations would be very, very effective in your cause of liberating yourself from the scumbaggery that is attacking you, no doubt.
But most of the time, like all of the time, you're just gonna be using this to open up boxes, you're gonna be using this for school projects, you're gonna be using this for cutting rope, and twine at work, or whatever it is you cut at work.

[49:45] I don't really cut much at work, except for cardboard sometimes.
But when I'm out on a video shoot with my guys, and if they don't have the knife that I gave them, yeah, they'll cut mostly sash rope, I guess, if they're rigging something.
But this chews right through it, no doubt.
A great back pocket knife is the Delica, and with these serrations, totally awesome.
Totally awesome deed. All right, next up, my Microtex. I have two serrated Microtex, and Microtex does not shy away from serrations. They have some fully serrated knives, and I love that.

[50:25] It reeks of tactical, and you know, Micro Tech reeks of tactical.
Like this one here, this is the Ultra Tech, that's a four, nearly four and a half inch, so it's a four point, I'm sorry, 3.48 inch M390 dagger ground blade with the top serrated.
I just love that combination.
You got one edge unserrated, one edge that's serrated.
If you're looking at this like a work knife, for some reason, you have double the life, right up here you have, you're doing all your, all your regular cutting chores here, opening the boxes and doing whatever with the regular edge, and then, oh, I gotta cut some straps, those packing straps, and some rope and some twine.
Well, you just use it backwards, towards you, using those serrations, a really great combination if you are using this as a work knife, which is, you know, to me it's a total weapon, right?
This is designed as a weapon-y type knife, but it doesn't have to be.

[51:27] Really, actually, now that I'm talking about it, this, if it weren't illegal in your location, this would be an awesome like work knife, warehouse knife, because we all have seen the videos where people take these things and abuse the crap out of them.
I mean, you can really, these are not just toys. These are not just toys.
They can take a hell of a lot of abuse, these Microtech autos.
There was a guy, and now I can't remember what his name is, but a charming gentleman who would take Microtech knives and just beat the hell out of them, and they keep coming back.

[52:00] So these Ultratechs are no exception in that case, and then you add the serrated, a whole other run of serrations and edge.
You get what I'm getting at. This is not just a weapon anymore, even though it looks terribly weapon-y.
This is the Troodon, also that same setup. And if you look closely, it might be better with the black blade here.
They do something a little different here.
So those little center scoops, it's kind of the same.

[52:31] Yeah, you can see that that they are working on different levels too. So you got the large peak and then the small peak in the middle. So these are a little bit more like the Emerson serrations than they are like the Spyderco serrations. The one in the center is a little bit smaller.
So you're working on some different levels. Yeah. All right. So that's these are the Microtex.
One last thing before we get to Cold Steel. This is a cool one. Oh no, I'm sorry. I forgot another one.
Here, I'm going to do this one first. This is the CRKT. I don't even remember what this model is called, frankly.
But I'm calling it the Polkowski Casper Fighter. I think it was called something like that.
Al Polkowski, one of my favorite tactical fixed blade knife designers and makers from the 90s.
And Casper, what's his name, I can't remember his first name now, sorry, using that same pattern that we saw on Spyderco.
That was probably their cue at this time. Spyderco, CRKT was doing a lot of serrations at the time, too.
This would make a great double-edged fighter here. I love this thing, but again, we're seeing that chisel edge.

[53:47] Which also makes the regular plane edge wickedly sharp on this thing, this thing because we know that chisel ground edges are just extreme in their sharpness.
So this thing is, I've always loved this knife. This one sits at my wife's desk. This is her.

[54:04] Desk knife. Alright, and then I wanted to show you this. This blows all of the others, not away, but this one fits in no category at all. This is the Off-Grid Knives Rapid fire rescue or the bee serration.

[54:22] They look like vampire teeth, and there is a pattern. Big, four peaks, big, four peaks, big, four peaks.
Big not being as, the big scoop is not so much larger than the others that it's that noticeable, but you can see there are four daggers between the large scoops on this one.
Four daggers on the large scoop heading up towards cold steel, is this off-grid knives Wharncliffe Rapid Fire.
You can get this Wharncliffe Rapid Fire in a non-serrated black version, but I keep this orange Rescue One in the car door.
This is right there next to me, and hopefully if I ever need it, it hasn't rattled around, and been ejected out the window or what have you.
But this is here for that. Those serrations are just wicked, wicked, wicked, wicked.

[55:15] I have a feeling that they would come off with heavy use, but you kind of only need them that one time, right? To really get you out of that pinch. But also being so large and dulling down, you will get extended cutting life in the saw fashion of it, you know. All right, putting this away, let's move to cold steel. I got a bunch of the cold steel serrated. I'll show first the Voyagers and using this This one, this is the vacuero, the shape that everyone loves so much, especially Lynne Thompson.
But look at these serrations now.
Five peaks between the scoops. So it's like five little daggers, one large hawkbill, five little daggers, one large hawkbill, repeated over and over, over this sinuous S-shaped blade.

[56:14] So in my opinion, these are the gnarliest of serrations. I think that these, they last forever, by the way.
I've had, I have my Vaccaro Grande, which is the old version of this knife, that I have, used and used and used and not sharpened and then sharpened and used and used and used, for so long and those serrations just keep on ticking.
So they last a long time and they're like chainsaws. I chose, on this Voyager Tanto, I chose to get the serrations on this for the same reason I have them on the Wharncliffe here.
Just adding the serrations to that straight cutting edge just makes it extra wicked.
Plus if this is super sharp and that edge is, uh.

[57:06] Something fibrous it really might skate because of the because of the lack of curve so just adding some of that bite with those five little daggers and the, one hawkbill repeated down that edge seemed like the natural fit for the Voyager. Alright next up I have the Cold Steel Holdout. This is a knife that this is an Aus8. This is a knife that I figured really really wanted serrations, because it doesn't have a guard and for some reason to me that meant I wanted the the edge to be as just horrifyingly effective as possible so that on a slash using this relatively spear point style edge I I would get as much zing out of it as I could zing as much zest out of it as I could so that is the hold out plus it is a six inch blade it just seemed like I should go as gnarly as I possibly could. Alright second to last here is the Talwar. I talked about this, those serrations, oh this one needs it I feel like anything that doesn't have the recurve and is glancing away should have those.
All right, and last up, the granddaddy of them all. This is the, I shouldn't say the granddaddy, I should say the nastiest of them all. This is the Black Talon II.

[58:33] Those serrations on this blade just make it ridiculous. They say from the ridiculous to the sublime.
Well, I guess this is sublime.
You take a geometry, a cutting edge, a profile that is just so grimly effective.
I don't know what the right word is, so incredibly effective at cutting soft tissue and such.

[58:59] And then you add those serrations. It's laughable how effective and nasty that is.
So there it is, ladies and gentlemen. My serrated blade collection.

[59:13] I had moved away from them for a while, thinking, oh, you know, they're unnecessary they don't cut right and I don't like the way they look and I've come back around to really liking them and appreciating them especially on tactical knives or knives where you think you might be out there and needing extra cutting after a long period of time. That's why I have for instance the SOG which has relatively soft OSS 8 but is a knife that I wouldn't cry too much much over losing in my get home bag, because it has those serrations. If that Aus8 dulls, I can always come back to those serrations. So I know we've veered away from them in our modern, you know, knife collecting, but consider serrations maybe on a couple of knives, just like if you're a folder guy, you should consider getting a fixie and vice versa.
You should consider getting serrations even if you're not a serration guy. All right. Like we do in the DeMarco household I have.
Beating a dead horse with that. All right, join us on Sunday for Keith Bean.
He's Stickman from Cold Steel and GSM Outdoors.
We have a great conversation, very interesting guy coming from the archery world, self-made man, came up with some revolutionary deer blinds, sold them and became a player.
So definitely check out Sunday's interview.

[1:00:40] It's great fun. We had a lot of Cold Steel here, so you're in the mood.
Also, be sure to download the show your favorite podcast app and listen whilst on the go. For, Jim working his magic behind the switcher. I'm Bob DeMarco saying until next time, don't take dull for an answer. Thanks for listening to the knife junkie podcast. If you enjoyed the show, please rate and review it review the podcast.com for show notes for today's episode, additional resources and to listen to past episodes, visit our website, the knife junkie calm. You can also watch our latest videos on YouTube at the knife junkie.com slash YouTube. Check out some great knife photos on the knife junkie.com slash Instagram and join our Facebook group at the knife junkie.com slash Facebook. And if you have a question or comment, email them to Bob at the knife junkie.com or call our 24 seven listener line at 724-466-4487. And you may hear your comment or question answered on an upcoming episode of the Knife Junkie podcast.

[1:01:38] Music.